


Celestial Blessings

by kokofas



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Drama, Friendship, Multi, Romance, dance au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-09
Updated: 2015-01-28
Packaged: 2018-03-06 19:37:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 18,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3146120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kokofas/pseuds/kokofas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Trial and failure, trial and success. Tears and dreams, sprained ankles and broken toes. To push against the boundaries of pain, injury, disappointment and frustration, and get up again; that is the life of an artist. That is the life of a ballet dancer. But could that really be all there is to it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> M-rating for future mature content. I do not own anything but the plot.  
> Special thanks to [Jade4813](https://www.fanfiction.net/beta/1021253/Jade4813) for beta reading!

Percy Jackson had imagined several scenarios of him first setting foot into the renowned Goode High School of the Arts, but what he saw before him was certainly not one of them.

He saw the average High School scene, with the same groups of students milling around or leaning on lockers or hurrying to various classrooms despite it being only 7 AM, far too early to be hurrying to _anything_. There was the minor exception of the fact that most of aforementioned students were wearing ballet shoes – or no shoes in some cases - instead of actual shoes, and wearing leggings as naturally as if they were born right into them.

There was also no legendary music in the background, but he sort of was expecting that to be absent in reality, much as he had wanted it to be there. Come on, who didn't fantasize about having legendary music in the background of life altering situations after all?

Still, Percy stuck with the dramatic "pause-at-the-entrance-as-you-study-the-new-environment" pose, not really out of dramatic tendencies – well only a little – but due to actual shock. He was finally a part of Goode High School…

And it felt pretty ordinary.

Sighing, Percy directed his gaze at the paper he'd printed out from the school's website, showing the school's map. He frowned and stared down at it in confusion before realizing he was holding it upside down. Clearing his throat and quickly flipping it to the correct direction, he looked up to make sure nobody had seen the slight display of stupidity, sighing in relief when confirming that nobody had. He looked down at it once again as he walked forward through the wide corridor, easily moving between the students because 1) The corridor was pretty wide and 2) there weren't many students in the school 3) You learnt how to become quite the expert in the art of dodging other students at public school. At the end of the corridor were two sets of stairs that seemed to lead up to the same floor. Shrugging, he took the left one –which was packed with fewer students- running his hand along the marble railing as the stairs twisted artistically upwards, leading to the floor that supposedly contained the Administration Offices.

"Are you lost?" A soft, voice came from behind him. Percy whirled around to be met with a pair of warm, almond eyes that were emphasized by the eyeliner surrounding them, causing them to stand out – though for what purpose, Percy didn't know. There was no reason to distract people from the rest of the girl's face as it was equally pretty, and the few fallen strands from her braided cinnamon hair only helped with framing her cute appearance.

Realizing he'd been silent for a time that passed appropriate and began breaching rude, he cleared his throat and smiled politely at her, "Um- yeah, actually," he admitted, a sheepish smile spreading on his face as he rubbed the back of his head. Looking down at his map, he pointed at the 'Administration Offices' area and glanced back up."Know where this is? I can't seem to find my way around here."

The girl smiled and nodded, adjusting the strap of her bag as it slipped from her shoulder. "Yeah, I'm actually headed there myself. Gotta get my schedule. Come on." She beckoned to him as she started to walk ahead, Percy sighing inwardly in relief and following behind. Perhaps he wouldn't be late to his first official class in Goode High School after all.

"Didn't you guys receive your schedules before school started?" Percy asked as he caught up with her, slowing his pace once he did to match hers.

"Everybody got it except me; I was on vacation, just came back." She briefly explained, "So what's your name?" She asked as she led him into a side corridor that he'd failed to notice from his earlier position at the stairs.

"Uh, Percy Jackson." He replied a bit distractedly as he looked at the portraits lined along the walls of the corridor, varying from black-and-white images of dancers to modern pictures of the school building or even old drawings of its founders.

"I'm Calypso. Haven't seen you around the school before," she commented as she looked back at him,

"I'm new here," Percy explained and she nodded.

"I guessed so. You're here to talk to the Owl?"

"Who?"

"The Owl; Headmistress Athena. That's what we call her around here."

Percy frowned. "Why?" He asked and Calypso momentarily paused at the door of the administration to look around before she turned her gaze back to him, her eyes wide as if she were about to let him in on something unbelievable.

"Because she's psychic," she whispered before opening the door for the both of them. Walking ahead of him with an amused smile drawn on her face, she left him standing in confusion before he decided to run up to her.

"What do you mean?" he asked in a low tone, noticing the sheer amusement on her face.

"Don't rush it; you'll see," she replied before she pushed him towards one of the women sitting at the desks.

Eyes wide with anxiety, Percy smiled in a hopefully composed manner, explaining to the secretary that he had been told he had an appointment with the headmistress. He was new, meaning he hadn't received the orientation students his age already had during their freshman year. The secretary made a quick call before directing him to a set of blackly colored tufted double-doors behind her. Swallowing thickly, Percy looked back to find Calypso talking to another woman sitting behind a desk.

"Perseus Jackson." The headmistress – The Owl – said as she took off her glasses, looking up at him, her eyes a stormy grey color that not only unsettled Percy but made him pretty sure he'd be having nightmares for the rest of the week.

"Yes," he replied steadily, grateful he had successfully avoided stammering.

"Have a seat." The Owl gestured to a comfortable looking seat that sat beside her desk and Percy quickly took it, the tone of her voice assuring him that she was not a woman to be kept waiting, "It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

Taking in a deep breath, Percy tried to keep a straight posture, his hands rested on his knees and only slightly squeezing them to the point of cutting off his blood circulation. He was nervous, and the only thing he wanted at that moment was to leave the piercing gaze of his new headmistress.

"Do relax, dear. I'm not here to interrogate you." She chuckled softly and Percy cracked a nervous smile, knowing full well that that was exactly what she was here for.

The chuckle died quickly and her face lost all humor in it as she leaned on her clasped hands to peer at him, her calculating eyes studying his face. "How does it feel to finally be in Goode?" she eventually asked.

Panicking for no reason –it was a simple question, god damn it – Percy racked his brain for a suitable answer before he smiled pleasantly at her, forcing his sea-green eyes to make contact with her grey ones, a shiver running down his spine. He thought he understood where the Owl nickname came from now.

"Uh- it feels great. I'm really excited." he said. Keep it simple.

"Well we certainly are excited to have such a talented student on our hands as well. You're a pre-advanced contemporary major, correct?" she asked and he nodded, not feeling the need to comment on the question. He was sure she already had that information documented and verified on papers. "Magnificent." She smiled tightly at him and he resisted the urge to flee the office, wondering if she would smile like that to her victims if she were a serial killer.

Shaking the image out of his head, he smiled back politely, hoping for the millionth time that she'd dismiss him. She didn't – obviously.

"Could you tell me a little about yourself, Perseus?" she asked and he cursed internally; that question was the bane of all students on earth. How could you possibly know what to say? If you spoke negatively, you're lousy, but if you speak positively, you're a show off.

Sighing, he decided he'd just talk, hoping he didn't embarrass himself, "Well, I think of myself as a good student. My grades are pretty good, I think. Um, I'm almost never late to class-"

"Perseus," The Owl interrupted him and he stopped immediately, fearing he'd said something wrong. Her cold smile stretched a bit more and his breath caught, "I asked about you, not about your academic endeavors. I appreciate your enthusiasm about education, but we both know you don't spend your days memorizing text books." She chuckled. "Speak freely, Perseus."

"Oh," he said and swallowed. This was even worse; your headmaster should never know what kind of kid you were in reality. It meant they could read you like an open book. Crap.

"Uh, I'm pretty friendly. I'm chill about things -" _Shit, I said chill_ "But I still don't neglect anything. Um, I work great in groups… um, uh… I like video games?" He asked uncertainly, inwardly slapping himself in the face. That sucked, even for him.

"Well, our school does not offer any video-game related lectures to put your talent into use, unfortunately." She chuckled and Percy cracked a fake smile, hoping it was real enough for her, "But I believe you'd adapt swiftly with the way things are run. That said, I do hope you'd come to me if you need anything at all. I wouldn't want you feeling uncomfortable in this new environment; I am aware it's a lot to take in." He nodded. _It's like any other high school, just fancier_ , he wanted to comment, but he kept his mouth shut, knowing that wasn't exactly the right thing to say. Besides, he hadn't seen anything but the corridors so far.

"Now, I'll discuss with you a few points about Goode before I let you go-" The Owl was interrupted as the phone on her right rang and she smiled apologetically at him, picking up,

"Yes, Medusa? Mr. Zeus is here already? Alright, are there any students around you by any chance, perhaps a certain Calypso Ogygia? Marvelous, do send her in. Thank you, Medusa." She nodded to the phone as if whoever Medusa was – her secretary, possibly – could see her, before she put it down, Calypso walking in at the same moment.

"Calypso! What a delight," the Owl exclaimed and Calypso smiled back, looking her straight in the eye. Percy wondered how she managed to do that at all. " Perseus," the Owl turned to look at him and he tried to mimic Calypso, failed, and allowed his gaze to fall on the wall behind the headmistress, "I would have liked to be the one to deliver the instructions to you, but sadly the fates seem to be working against us today and I must tend to some business. I do hope we speak again, but for now you need to get your schedule, which you can acquire from Medusa outside. After that, Calypso can give you a small tour around the school and help you reach your first class of the day," she said, giving Calypso a stern look, who simply smiled back as easily as if the Owl was her best friend.

"Sure thing, Ma'am. Come on, Percy," Calypso beckoned, turning around and walking out as Percy followed her.

He was about to step out and escape the Owl's piercing gaze when she called to him, "Mr. Jackson," She used his last name and he knew from what little experience he had with authority figures that this was far more serious than the conversation they'd had earlier. He turned and blinked at her expectantly as she studied him.

"Mr. Jackson," She repeated, "I like you. Don't give me a reason to change that," she stated, and although her tone was normal, he could easily read the threat she'd thrown in his face. Don't go around causing trouble; I'll know. And I'll make you regret it.

Gulping, he nodded silently and left her office, sighing in relief and visibly relaxing as her direct gaze left him. He adjusted his one-strap bag on his shoulder then walked with Calypso towards the secretary – the one the Owl had called Medusa. Her hair was done in a messy sort of way, and he hoped she wasn't aiming for looking artsy like that because all he saw was a nest full of restless snakes.

Thankfully, she decided against making small talk, her lips set in a thin, curt line as she printed out his schedule and handed it to him. She didn't bother to give him a second glance as he thanked her politely and followed Calypso outside.

"What the hell was that?" he asked as he walked behind Calypso, whose walk visibly turned from a somewhat composed walk to a gentle sway of hips, which indicated that perhaps she had been a little nervous around The Owl after all. Still not as nervous as she probably should have been, he thought. She picked up her carelessly thrown bag from the floor and continued on ahead.

"That, my friend, was the beloved Owl," she replied as she took his schedule from him.

"She knew you were outside."

"Of course she did; she's the Owl. Your first class is Contemporary. Do you want that tour or do you just want to get to your class?" she asked as she returned his schedule to him and pulled her phone out of the back pocket of her jeans. He vaguely wondered why she wasn't wearing leggings like most of the kids in the hall.

"Um, tour, please," he replied and she nodded, pocketing her phone again.

"Well then, let's get going, Jackson." Calypso grinned at him as she led the way.

The tour was brief, with Calypso pointing out classes to him as they passed by them, answering his questions whenever he had any, and pointing out rules when she thought necessary. Percy learnt that the academic classrooms were on the same floor as the Administration office, while the dance halls, music halls, art studios and workshops, and cafeteria were on the ground floor. He also learnt that there was a back door beside Art II that led to a sort of back yard for the school, and said yard led to the theater where the theater students took their classes. Calypso added that the students could go smoke behind the theater since the teacher didn't really care, and it was far enough from the Owl's nose that she wouldn't reach them in time to catch them in the act, although everybody theorized that she already knew they smoked there since she seemed to know everything. Percy didn't really know why she'd told him that piece of information; he wasn't a smoker – smoking and dancing didn't really mix together, and if they did, he really didn't want to risk it anyway.

"Alright, I've got to run to my class, you can change in there." She pointed behind him at the men's bathroom. "You remember the way to the Contemporary halls, right?" she asked and he nodded, bidding her goodbye and thanking her before walking into the bathroom.

It was too fancy for a bathroom, he noted. Normal schools never had bathrooms that were this elaborate, but he guessed a dance school could hardly be categorized as a normal school. Shrugging, he decided to just change in front of the mirrors since nobody was there anyway. He took off his jeans, zipped his bag open, and pulled out the new black leggings his mother had gotten him. He slipped into them quickly, opting to keep his shoes on until he reached his class.

The bell rang the moment he reached the door, panting slightly, and he quickly opened it, muttering an apology to the teacher who seemed too busy to notice him as he walked in. Percy decided to mimic the other students and sit on the floor – even though the seats were, like, right behind them – so that one guy was to his left and a girl to his right. The girl to his right was pretty, to say the least; she seemed to have a slender yet defined body, with strong legs, and her medium-length wavy hair was an appealing blonde that worked perfectly with her moderate skin, which was not too pale nor too tanned. He decided she seemed like a nice person, despite noticing her storm-grey eyes that resembled the Owl's eyes, but perhaps a little warmer.

The guy to his left, however, had completely different features. His body was lanky but still as defined as hers – all dancers had muscular bodies, after all – and his skin was leaning towards a deep olive color. His eyes were an ordinary brown, resembling his hair that sat like a curly nest on the top of his head.

Turning away from watching his two classmates, he looked in the direction of the teacher, who was still in a deep conversation with somebody else. Percy could only see the back of whoever was standing before the teacher, but he could tell from the outline of their body in their clothes that the person was probably male, albeit a very thin one. He had extremely pale skin judging from the skin tone of his exposed calves, and he had a mass of tousled dark hair on his head that suggested he hadn't really bothered with fixing it that morning. Judging from his height, Percy guessed he was probably a freshman.

As he watched, he saw the boy frantically shake his head and whisper back to the teacher in what could only be called an angry manner before he huffed, picked up his bag, and stormed out, a pair of ballet shoes dangling from his bag and disappearing with him as the door swung shut behind him.

There was a brief silence as the teacher sighed and rubbed his forehead before he looked back up at the class. A wide, awkward smile spread on his face as he let his hand down, allowing Percy to get a clear view of his face. He didn't look old, he was probably in his late twenties, and his face was more attractive than not. His eyes were a twinkling blue that was emphasized by the smile wrinkles surrounding his eyes, as if he'd spent most of his life grinning the way he was now. His hair was a salt-and-pepper color, despite his young age, but it still went exceptionally well with his eyes. His nose was straight and his jaw was angular, which would have given him an intimidating air were it not for the childish look he had on his face. The rest of his body was tanned and well defined, Percy noticed with appreciation.

"Well, class. Most of you know me, but for those of you who don't, I'm Mr. Hermes Mercury, the official Contemporary instructor. Or, for you, the Advanced Contemporary instructor. I truly am excited that most of us have gotten through the hardships of the art of Contemporary and reached this point together. I always believed in each and every one of you." He smiled widely before he started to pace around, his feet extraordinarily graceful that Percy wondered if he'd ever become like him. "But," he said as he stopped to look at them.

The guy beside Percy quickly leaned back and whispered to the girl on the other side, "But I'm full of shit." He managed to add Hermes's dramatic tone in his whisper, though how, Percy had no clue; how does a person make a whisper dramatic?

The girl beside Percy rolled her eyes back at the curly haired boy, slapping the back of his head from behind Percy's back, although Percy could see the twitch at the side of her mouth.

"We are far from done," Hermes said and Percy's attention returned to him, watching blankly as the instructor took yet another dramatic pause – it seemed he was into those. "Advanced Contemporary is the most crucial point of your dance tuition. You see, Advanced Contemporary is less about the theoretical aspect of Contemporary; instead it is about the art within your souls. Each and every one of you has a beautiful, mesmerizing melody in their soul, and it is your responsibility to let that radiant melody pierce through the boundaries of your body to deafen the world with its brilliant reverberation in this school year." Percy groaned internally. Was this guy even for real?

"Of course," Hermes followed up quickly, "If you fail to achieve all that before Christmas break you're failing this class. Sorry." He shrugged, "Any questions?" he asked cheerfully, a wide grin on his face as if he'd just told them the most hilarious joke in existence. Percy finally decided the guy was a complete and utter nutcase.

A brunette girl from the other side of the room raised her hand, everybody turning to look at her as Hermes nodded his permission to her. She lowered her hand, a tight smile on her face as if she were trying to fight it off but failing miserably,

"Uh, do we all, like, get to be in the annual dance this year?" she asked, excitement fading from her eyes as Hermes laughed hysterically, batting the air with his hand in her direction before he got serious, pacing around once again.

"All of you do not get to participate in the annual dance, my dear. In fact, only a selected few of you, the very best, will be dancing in it. And from what I've seen so far, Drew, you haven't been all that impressive." He smiled sweetly at her and the girl flinched, looking down as her cheeks turned rouge.

"Since we have no more questions," Hermes began despite the raised hand of another student, who quickly lowered it as he gave him a stern look, "I'll leave you to stretch for ten minutes while I go tend to a certain issue. I want all of you to be ready to release your inner beauties in precisely a minute for each so I would know where each of you stands on the performance scale." As he finished, his eyes quickly skimmed over the students before he walked away and disappeared through the door.

Conversation started the moment he stepped out, the voices buzzing much like a beehive before the door opened and Hermes poked his head into the hall. "STRETCHES, NOW!" he shouted, and everybody scampered up, Percy following suit but standing in his place in confusion; he didn't know anybody and he wasn't sure where he was supposed to stretch as everybody took a certain spot in the hall.

"Hey," he heard a female voice call and turned to the right, facing the girl that was sitting beside him earlier. "Wanna stretch with us? There's only two of us," She offered with a shrug. The curly haired boy standing beside her had a welcoming smile on his lips.

"Um, sure." Percy shrugged and walked up to their spot, his right hand rubbing his left arm nervously.

The curly haired boy spoke as he raised his foot and rested it against the wall, so that his leg was completely straight, leaning down to get his fingers to touch his toes easily, "We know how awkward it is to be the new kid, didn't want to leave you there all alone. What's your name?"

"Percy Jackson," the girl answered for Percy before he had the chance to open his mouth, getting him to frown quickly,

"How did you know?" he asked, trying to not be creeped out.

"She's the headmistress's daughter," the curly-haired boy answered. "She knows everything before we do."

"Untrue," she replied nastily to the curly haired boy before turning back to Percy, "It just so happens that you're the only new junior this year, so naturally she told me your name." She smiled.

"Oh." Percy said dumbly, allowing himself to be creeped out now. He was talking to the Owl's daughter. Did she even know that they called her mother the Owl?

Shaking his curious thoughts away, Percy smiled politely, "So what are your names, then?"

"I'm Annabeth Chase, and he's Grover Underwood," she replied as she sank to the ground, easily doing a split as she did and leaning forward so she was almost completely flat against the floor. She didn't seem to lack anything in flexibility, so Percy expected her to be pretty good at Contemporary dance.

"Nice to meet ya, man." Grover offered a hand to shake and Percy took it, clasping the other boy's hand firmly and shaking it once before releasing. He leaned down and took off his shoes, pushing them to the side before seating himself on the floor and mimicking what Annabeth was doing. He had done some stretching earlier in the morning, but a little more never hurt.

"So what's that annual dance thing that girl mentioned?" he asked as he hooked his arm under his leg, raising it so the toes were pointed straight upwards, his other leg tucked under him.

"It's this thing that goes on in the school," Grover began. "Each year, the juniors and the seniors each have an individual dance. Usually Ballet and Contemporary pieces, other styles are occasionally included but Ballet and Contemporary basically rule this school. At times they do a classic, but this year our year's probably going to choreograph its own dance piece, which should be sick 'cause the best are handling it. Either way, they choose the best dancers in our year for it since a lot of important figures attend this thing; that's why everybody's really tense." Grover nodded to the others and Percy turned awkwardly to look at them. Now that Grover had mentioned it, they did seem a bit tense; they were hardly speaking to each other and some of them took stretching a little bit too far, like, doing back flips or even rehearsing a few steps. He wasn't sure they quite understood the concept of improvisation.

"Everybody wants to be in it?" he asked as he turned back to face Grover. "Why? I mean, it's just one dance event. They're in a dance school; aren't there any more events?"

"Sure," Annabeth said as she laid down on the floor, letting her hands reach up to rest on the ground on either side of her head before she lifted herself with the help of her feet, her body resembling a bridge, "But this one's the most important. Like Grover said, a lot of important people attend it, and if you're in the dance and get noticed you could get a scholarship somewhere or even get asked to perform with a company. Everybody's in it for the scholarships, after all."

"Yeah…" Percy said, frowning a little. It seemed the students really took dancing way more seriously than he'd thought. He did love dancing, but he wasn't sure he wanted to make a career out of it; he just knew he was good, applied to Goode, and happened to be accepted. Maybe he should consider what they were all considering.

Shrugging, he stood up straight before leaning back until he was easily making a standing bridge as well, glancing at the two of them. "So who do you guys think will get to perform in this dance?"

"Who knows?" Grover replied. "It's not like any of us are bad. Drew is pretty good, and Mr. Hermes just called her talentless, so basically they don't want 'pretty good' they want 'hella awesome', man, and none of us know who would fall under that category yet."

"Hella awesome? Seriously, Grover?" Annabeth asked, rolling her eyes.

"What?"

"Nothing I'm just so enchanted by your artistic vocabulary," she replied, smirking and managing to get an amused smile from Percy, as well.

"Of course you are. I'm like, the next Shakespeare."

"You're a Music major; Shakespeare wrote plays," she countered.

"Hey, hey, hey, let's not get all discriminatory over here, Ms. Tip-Toe-Through-The-Tulips-"

"That's not even-"

"Music majors are humans, too, Annabeth. Learn to love and accept your peers, man," he finished, gaining a frustrated groan from the blonde as she sank down before standing up beside him.

"First of all, I don't even tip toe, that's Ballet you uneducated idiot. Second of all, shut up," she said, the two boys laughing loudly as the door swung open and a very agitated Mr. Hermes walked in.

"Oh laughing, are we?" he asked, his tone resembling the calm before a very crappy storm. "What's there to laugh about? Perhaps, you don't think Contemporary is challenging enough. Well then, if you three are so confident with your skills, why don't you dazzle us with your unfathomably sensational talent?" he asked, the sarcasm dripping from his voice causing a few students to chuckle. The insides of Percy burnt with annoyance but before he could get up and volunteer to be first, Annabeth shrugged and walked to the middle of the class, pulling her over-shirt off slowly and throwing it to the side to reveal a red bra-top, resting her hands on either sides of her as she waited for the song to begin.

Mr. Hermes waited a few beats to make sure she was all set before he went to the Shelf stereo system and hit shuffle on the iPod attached. The soft tune of the _Summertime Sadness_ opening resonated in the hall and Annabeth quickly reacted, leaning down with one arm slowly, before bringing herself up, kneeling down abruptly afterwards and splaying her hands in the air in front of her chest as she rose once again. She raised her right leg to the side then lowered it quickly, switching so that her hand and her left leg were raised in the air instead as she turned slowly, letting the two touch briefly before lowering them and spreading her arms on either sides to make yet another full rotation. She raised her left arm and right leg, balancing on the left as she quickly lowered them once the beat picked up. She switched her right leg and left leg in a matter of seconds, allowing her right leg to support her weight instead. She slid on the sole of her foot, facing the other way with her knees and elbows bent at angles. She leaned back onto her right leg before promptly rising on its toes, leaving her left leg and both arms high in the air.

Percy watched the rest of the performance with a small smile on his face; she was pretty good, as he'd predicted. Her movements were well coordinated and she moved effortlessly, despite a shaky leg here and there. The minute's seconds passed quickly and he chuckled as Annabeth slid down directly into a split, her hands slipping through her hair at the same time as the _'Done my hair up real big beauty queen style'_ part came. Then she hugged her legs back to her chest quickly, pointing her toes directly on the ground and pushing herself up on their tips hurriedly, kneeling onto her left foot as her right offered support, making a sneaky-styled walk. She raised her arms and twirled to face the others, bringing her hands down slowly in front of her as she bent her crossed legs slowly.

"Alright, that's enough. Thank you, Ms. Chase," Mr. Hermes called as he paused the music. Annabeth sighed heavily in relief, walking to her white shirt and picking it up before heading back to the other two and seating herself on the ground between them, a grin on her face.

"Did I do okay?" she asked as she slid the shirt on and searched through her bag for water.

"You did great; too great. That was already choreographed, Annie." Grover rolled his eyes at her as she smirked more.

"Pfft," she snorted then raised the bottle to her lips, drinking water greedily before lowering it again. "Don't call me Annie, and I just happened to have made a dance piece to that song in the summer." She shrugged, ducking a light blow from Grover. "What??" She asked while laughing softly.

"That's not fair at all," he grumbled.

"Well maybe if you actually practiced in the summer, you would have prepared pieces, too." She smirked at him, receiving a very elaborate eye-roll.

"You know I don't really care about Contemporary," he said and Percy frowned at him, about to ask why that was before Mr. Hermes's voice echoed to them.

"You, Perseus Jackson, right?" he asked and Percy nodded back. "You're up next; come on."

Nodding, Percy smiled at the two before getting off the floor and walking to the spot Annabeth had stood in earlier, opting to take off his white shirt as well since he didn't know how much movement the song he'd be assigned would require.

The song _Remember When It Rained_ started. Percy waited a bit to mull over what he should begin with before deciding on starting with something relaxed; stepping forward with his right foot and walking forward slowly before making a slow spin with his hands spread beside him, resembling a bird in flight. He made a short pause, then allowed his left leg to fall behind him as his right leg bent forward, arching his back a little as he spread his left arm in front of him and made it slither up, not unlike an airborne snake. He rose onto his feet with it before lowering his arm and raising his right arm straight up instead, twirling on his right foot with his left foot lifted a little in the air in front of him. He kneeled on the ground after that, for dramatic effect, then he placed his palm firmly on the floor and rolled back onto it, his legs kicking at the air as he did so before allowing himself to sink back onto the floor once again, his back now to the others. He repeated the movement and ended it by twisting his legs and putting them firmly on the ground again. He took yet another pause to catch his breath, gathering his power before he stood on his right foot's toes' tips, positioning his arms so that they were suspended in the air, his right arm straight up as he allowed his left arm and leg to spread directly behind him.

Percy was vaguely aware of the watchful eyes of the others as he flowed through the moves, allowing the music to overtake his five senses. He could feel Mr. Hermes's intense gaze as he made seven consecutive 360 spins on one foot, his heart hammering in his chest with hope that his foot wouldn't give out and betray him as he finished them. It shook at one point but held, and he took a short pause, standing in front of the others and displaying his spread arms and relaxed body – remembering his old instructor's advice on using the release technique in his dancing – before launching into movement yet again. He remembered making a bridge, then rolling a couple of times before standing with his back to the rest of the class. He raised his arms one at a time, leaning with each one, before turning around to face the others for a second as he twirled twice and leaped gracefully through the air. He made a spin followed by a flip, landing on his feet before continuing to roll onto his knees desperately. He lifted his weight with his arms and his right foot as he flexibly raised his left straight up. He pushed at his flexibility, knowing it would hold a little, letting his leg continue to lower towards his head before it started to sting a little. He quickly let his leg fall to the side and rolled with it, bending it for balance as he spread the other leg to the side before making an air-kick with it. Lowering it as he turned, he swayed with his arms before he began a slow run, making sure its pace matched the music's as he jumped and spun in the middle of it, landing and continuing to run before rolling onto his knees again.

He paused briefly in that position as he tried to calculate how much time he had left before deciding that it was better to finish early than to be interrupted. Standing straight, he walked a few paces, and then bowed to the class, accepting the applause gracefully before straightening.

"Thank you, Mr. Jackson. That was very good. Mr. Underwood, you're next," Mr. Hermes said as Percy made his way back to his place. He grinned at Grover and gave him an encouraging nod before he proceeded to accept the water Annabeth offered to him. He drank it slowly, sighing in relief as he lowered the bottle.

Grover's song was AWOLNATION's _Sail_ , which he danced pretty well to, but Percy could see his disinterest in dancing as he moved; it didn't have much spirit in it and seemed more like a clunky set of practiced movements put together. Mastered movements, but still clunky.

He watched the rest of the class's dance pieces, perking up and paying attention whenever a good performance was put on, but all in all, he didn't see the difference in levels between all the students. The performances eventually finished, and Mr. Hermes launched into a deep-ass speech about art once again before the bell rang, causing several sighs of relief to sound as everybody got up and got their belongings, chatter filling the hall immediately.

"Hey, Percy, what do you have next, man?" Grover asked as Percy pulled his shoes back on and slung his bag on his shoulder.

"Uh," he muttered as he looked down on his schedule before looking back at Grover. "Math. Why?"

"Shit. I have a free period and thought you might have one too so we'd hang out. Well, I'll see you around lunch, bro." Grover sighed as he offered a fist to be bumped before smiling at Percy and filing out behind the rest.

"Perseus Jackson," Mr. Hermes called just as Percy was about to leave.

He turned. "Yes, sir?" he asked politely, making his way towards the older man.

"That performance was moderately decent. I don't know if you'll have time to train for this year's Annual Dance, but I want you to keep working anyway. Perhaps I'll find you something to participate in this year. You have real talent, Perseus."

"Percy," Percy blurted out before he could stop himself, Mr. Hermes raising an eyebrow at him.

"Hmm?"

"Nothing, just – um, thanks." Percy smiled widely. "I'll definitely practice, sir." He nodded firmly; glad to see the confusion disappear from the instructor's face to turn into a satisfied smile.

"Alright, well, you better go catch your next class; I am not willing to carry the blame of causing your tardiness. I'll see you later, Percy." He smiled tightly at that, and Percy's eyebrows jumped in surprise; he'd actually noticed Percy's comment about his name.

Maybe he wasn't so bad after all.

Percy left the hall as other students filed in, apologizing as he bumped one or two before the seemingly never-ending masses ended. He sighed and started his way back to the stairs, taking the ones to the right this time, as they were closer to his class.

He walked in right before the teacher did. He stared a bit at the vacant seats. There was one in the back, but he really didn't want to seem uninterested from the very first day. But the seats at the front meant he'd look too interested. He sighed then opted for the one vacant seat in the middle. The desk was a bit dirty, with a lot of doodling in both pen and pencil on it, but it was still in good condition.

The teacher introduced himself as Professor Daedalus Quintus, a modest Pure Mathematics Harvard graduate that had decided to dedicate his life to teaching the 'builders of the future' the arts of Mathematics. Percy thought he probably screwed up in his old job and couldn't get any better job than this. If that was the case, he'd probably been fired because he was the furthest thing from modest and never seemed patient enough to explain what the fuck he was talking about.

Twenty minutes had passed and Percy was well on his way on adding a new masterpiece to the desk he was occupying, resigned to the fact that he wouldn't be understanding Math this year either, when the door to the classroom opened and a boy walked in with a phone to his ear.

Daedalus paused in his lecture and stared at the boy incredulously before he cleared his throat, his mouth gaping when the boy held up his index finger to him in a 'wait-one-second' gesture.

"Mr. di Angelo," He called as calmly as he could muster, his voice shaking with pent-up wrath. The boy didn't seem to hear him, or if he did, he really didn't bother to acknowledge the fact that he did.

"No – No, don't you dare do tha- Screw you!" the boy said to the phone before he touched the screen to end the call, slipping the phone back into his pocket and looking at Professor Daedalus exasperatedly. "Sorry, sir, but I need you to excuse me from this class today." He shrugged and started to walk back towards the door.

"Mr. di Angelo, you may not be excused from my lecture yet again. You have already excused yourself from the first period; the least you could do is to attend this one – or is Mathematics too easy for you?"

"No, sir, I really love your class-" Percy almost snorted at that, "but I'm so busy right now. Madam Aphrodite said she-"

"I do not care what Madam Aphrodite said. Now come sit down and attend this lecture like the rest of these students, unless you believe yourself to be at a higher rank than them," Professor Daedalus stated strictly, blinking once at the boy but never tearing his eyes off of him. The boy opened his mouth as if to argue before he huffed, his shoulders sagging while he dragged himself to one of the front seats. Percy watched him as he plopped down in a vacant one and took a notebook out of his bag, letting it drop heavily on the desk before sighing and leaning back on the back of the seat. He stared coldly at the Professor as he carried on with the lesson, but the Professor was surprisingly unaffected by the searing gaze.

Percy soon realized the boy was the one from earlier that morning and continued to study him for a few minutes, now that he could finally see his face – or, rather, the side of it. His face was very pale, and dark circles were ringed around his eyes as if he hadn't had a good night's sleep since the day he was born. His nose was small and straight, and his lips seemed to have gone through a serious case of lip-gnawing.

His eyes slid to the rest of the boy's body, which at first glance he had thought was frail, but he changed his mind quickly; the boy was skinny, but his body carried an air of strength and grace that was a little unnerving, even in the slumped position he now assumed.

Percy's eyes finally settled on the boy's feet, which were encased in the ballet shoes that had been hanging out of his bag earlier. They were tapping the floor anxiously, and Percy could almost feel the anxiety slip into his mind as well before Professor Daedalus called somebody out, making Percy's heart jump to his throat before he realized it – thankfully – wasn't him.

Deciding to focus on the other student's sad efforts at solving the equation on the board, Percy dragged his attention back to the lecture. His eyes kept on sliding to glance at the boy every once in a while, only to get Percy even more confused; the boy was texting throughout the whole class. He wondered if he cared at all.

Percy's confusion and curiosity were about to reach their peak level when the bell rang, granting him the ability to release that sigh of relief that had been kept in from the very first second of Math class. Everybody rose from their seats at the same time. As he and the rest of the class were packing up, he chanced a glance at where the boy had been sitting only to find it vacant yet again. He looked up at the door and saw it swinging shut behind someone, and he was betting all his week's allowance that it was that boy.

A few more similar classes passed normally, where Percy got to be introduced to his Chemistry teacher, Ms. Hestia, who was actually pretty awesome. She wasn't at all bitter and temperamental like his usual Chemistry teachers; instead she was completely relaxed and actually managed to deliver the lesson's concept to the students in the classroom. He met two other teachers; Mr. Chiron, the English Literature teacher – who was possibly the most chill and awesome Literature teacher in existence – and Thanatos, the Physics teacher – who seemed okay if not a little bit too dead on the inside.

Lunch time came around and Percy found himself following the crowds into the large cafeteria. He'd seen it with Calypso, but his breath still caught a little when he entered. The floor was such a shiny marble that he could see the hint of his reflection in it, and all the booths and tables were made from a fancy, flawless wood that was complimented by the warm light coming from the chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. More portraits and paintings were hung around the cafeteria. He studied the food options the students took to their seats and quickly decided this was going to be the most luxurious meal of his life. It wasn't even that sad that he was in a school cafeteria.

Walking ahead, Percy stood in line and eventually got his share of the food – mashed potatoes, steak, a plate of salad, and a coke, his stomach growling in protest at the delay as he tried to search for a seat. He was about to give up on trying to share a table with anyone and go sit on the table near the bins, which were so clean and shiny he had trouble believing they really contained trash and not long-lost treasures, when he heard somebody call him out. Turning towards the sound, Percy made his way over to where Grover and Annabeth were beckoning him.

"Hey."

"Hey, Percy. So how's your day going?" Annabeth asked as she took a spoonful of salad into her mouth.

"It's okay." He shrugged as he seated himself beside Grover, who in turn patted his back.

"Just okay?" Annabeth asked with a raised eyebrow,

"Seriously, Annie, what day could go in any way other than 'okay' when you've got Daedalus drilling through your head from second period?" Grover asked her and Percy laughed, nodding in agreement. That Professor was hell on earth.

"Oh, shut up. I like him, he's smart."

"Yeah, exactly. He's smart, scary and you're probably the only student that he likes 'cause you're probably the only student that gets what the fuck he teaches us."

"Am not! There's… I mean there must be someone. Percy, didn't you get at least a little from what he explained to you?"

"He sorta lost me the moment I read the lesson's name," he replied, gaining a few laughs from the other two.

"You guys are idiots." Annabeth sighed heavily, shaking her head as she took a sip from her can of coke.

"You say that as if you're surprised," a blond boy with light blue eyes said with a smile as he slid into the opposite booth with a tray in his hands. "So what are we aimlessly arguing about with Brains again?"

"Stop calling me Brains," Annabeth groaned and the boy smirked more.

"Well, me and Percy here are trying to convince Brains that Daedalus is, indeed, a pain in the ass. Do you have anything to contribute to this conversation?" Grover asked, smirking as Annabeth groaned even more at the nickname.

"Oh, yeah, definitely. He's not just a pain in the ass; he's like, the ultimate pain in the ass. I hate that guy, he's stupid," the boy added helpfully, all three males giving Annabeth a shared look of: _See??_

"He's not stupid! He's just complicated, and I wouldn't blame him for being so erratic, I bet his brain is like a beehive."

"I bet it's a lot closer to an asshole, real dark and pretty narrow," the boy commented, gaining laughs from the other two boys and a pointed glare from Annabeth.

"Oh, right, I forgot to introduce you. Octavian, this is Percy. Percy, this is Octavian," Grover said and Octavian cleared his throat very loudly, making Grover roll his eyes at him, "Sorry; the amazing Octavian."

Octavian grinned. "Please, Grover, you're making me blush," he joked, making Grover's eyes roll once again as Percy laughed a little. He decided he liked the guy.

Conversation flew around the table and Percy soon felt a little more at ease with these people; they were hilarious, and they didn't really let their wealth show as much as he'd expected it to. It may sound judgmental, but he'd expected rich kids to be a little fuller of themselves.

Percy was listening to Grover telling the story of how he and Octavian had pranked Annabeth on her previous birthday with an amused smile on his face, when he caught sight of the boy from Mathematics walk into the cafeteria. He had changed back into regular shoes, his ballet ones dangling from his bag yet again as he walked straight to a table in the middle without taking a lunch tray. The boy put his bag down on the floor beside the booth there and Percy watched as a blond came up from behind him to whisper something into his ear, making the black-haired boy roll his eyes and smirk before kissing the blond softly. The two broke the kiss but remained at a close proximity as they sat down beside each other, the blond launching into conversation with the other kids on the table as the black-haired boy pulled up his phone and got back to texting, his hand stealing bites of the blonde's food every once in a while.

Grover noticed Percy's distraction from the story of their legendary prank and followed his line of sight, his eyes settling on the table Percy was staring at. "That's the extremely-rich-kids' table. Don't try to talk to them, man, they'll shoot you down in a matter of seconds."

"Who's the pale one with black hair?" Percy asked as he tore his eyes away from the addressed black-haired boy to look at Grover questioningly.

"That's Nico di Angelo," Annabeth said as she sipped from her coke, "He's like, from the best dancers that ever came to this school. He's so good at Ballet they're actually letting him help Ms. Aphrodite with the classes."

"And that's like, semi-impossible; only one kid in the history of this school ever got to instruct before graduation, and even she wasn't given the full freedom to instruct a whole class. I don't know how this kid does it, man, but he's pretty scary when it comes to dancing," Grover added, shaking his head slowly as if in disbelief.

"Is he going to be in the Annual Dance?" Percy asked as his curiosity started to rise.

"Nope," Annabeth said casually.

Percy's face quickly formed into a frown. "Why-"

"Cause he's going to be organizing it; that's why he's always running around like a maniac," she explained quickly.

"Is he in charge of everything around here?" Percy asked, slight annoyance in his voice. He wasn't dying to be in the boy's shoes, but it did seem like the kid was taking advantage of all the chances around here. 

"No, but I bet he wishes he were. I mean, the kid's the ultimate perfectionist," Grover said.

Octavian continued with a smirk on his face, "I bet if he could, he'd have half the student-body expelled for not having perfect postures. Nico di Angelo is insane." He stressed his last word, and Percy didn't even bother to correct him as he saw the (in)famous Nico di Angelo decline a pizza slice and get up to leave after finishing the blonde's salad. The boy really was insane.

The rest of Percy's classes flew by, and the bell finally rang to signify his freedom for the day. He sighed gratefully and took his bag in hand, heading to the bathroom to change into casual clothes. Once he was done, he walked through the wide and overly-extravagant gates of his school, opting to take a taxi home instead of walking there despite it being the main Manhattan rush hour; his feet were killing him.

"541 West 136th St, Hamilton Heights," he informed the driver as he slid into the backseat and shut the door. He rested his forehead on the closed window as he watched New York pass by, smiling softly each time he caught a New Yorker doing something absolutely disgusting while thinking nobody had seen.

God he loved New York.

He handed the cabbie his money once he reached his destination stepping out and walking to the building of his mother's apartment. He quickly climbed up the stairs and opened the door. "Hey Mom," he greeted upon entering, walking inside to dump his bag in his room before returning to the living room, leaning down to ruffle his little brother's hair.

"Sup Tyson?" He patted the little boy's shoulder as he stepped over him, Tyson too immersed in the television static to acknowledge him. Percy made his way into the kitchen and sat on the counter as he waited for his mom to finish talking on the phone with his older brother, Triton.

"Well, Tony, I think if you really like this girl you should bring her home with you this weekend," she said to the phone as she pulled out a pasta dish out of the oven, smiling softly at Percy as he rubbed his hands together excitedly. She paused on her way to get the dishes out of the cabinet as something was said from the other side. "…Oh come on, you're being dramatic; my questions aren't that tough-" She paused again as she was interrupted before she rolled her eyes. "That wasn't my fault, the girl said she was European, I expected her to know a little bit more about the European debt crisis-"

Percy stifled a laugh at that, his mother tearing the phone away from her face to laugh silently, winking at Percy.

"Okay I'm sorry for getting her to break up with you before you had the chance to sleep with her, honey, but if a girl is intimidated by an intelligent mother she's obviously not the one," she said with a laugh in her voice, pausing once again as Triton started to ramble yet again. She rolled her eyes and put the phone on the counter as he continued to rant, getting the dishes out and setting them on the small dining table in the living room, returning to the phone and putting it back to her ear,

"You know what? You're right, that wasn't very nice of me. Now honey, Percy just got back from school and it's time for dinner. No, we're having pasta. Yes, I know you don't like it, sweetie. You go get some food for yourself and that roommate of yours, and you're still bringing this new girl over to dinner this weekend. Okay, love you, bye!" she said hurriedly before hitting the End Call button, rolling her eyes at Percy.

"I swear," she said, chuckling as she shook her head. The two of them headed to the living room, Percy managing to convince Tyson that he needed to have dinner and leading him away from the TV once he'd assured him that nobody would remove the static.

"So, how was your first day in school?" Sally asked with an excited smile on her face. Percy loved that about his mother; it was like she was always there to be excited for him in new chapters of his life. He wasn't sure if she pretended to be that way for his sake, but he imagined she was a little bit excited, since she was the one who'd pushed him to audition in the summer in the first place.

"It was really cool; the school's so huge, we could play hide and seek in there all day, Tyson," he informed his brother, who in turn smiled widely in satisfaction before continuing to play with his food. Percy studied his brother with a fond smile. He loved the kid. He was diagnosed with autism, and was blind in one eye, but he was the nicest kid he knew. They'd discovered his autism when he was three years old, and after that Sally had put a double-effort in helping Tyson lead a normal life. She'd even managed to get him to feel somewhat comfortable with speaking to strangers sometimes, although he still preferred remaining quiet and playing alone, even at home. His favorite thing to do was watching the TV static. Percy never got that, but he guessed if TV static made his brother happy, he'd damn well let him watch it.

The rest of dinner went by with questions about the school from his mother, and then questions about his mother's business from him. Sally told the two that she had to go down to the store to take care of a few things and would be coming home late, telling Percy to not wait up.

With that in mind, Percy led Tyson to the shower, cleaning him up before helping him with his pajamas and putting him to sleep. Once he was done with that, he headed back to the shower, opting to take a hot shower himself before going to bed.

He groaned once the hot water hit his back, soothing his sore muscles. His mind went back to all the events that occurred earlier in the day, chuckling softly as he remembered Grover's story once again.

As he stepped out of the tub and wrapped a towel around his waist, he thought of Nico di Angelo. He'd heard that the boy was instructing one of the Ballet classes, and Percy wondered if there was a chance it would be Beginner's Ballet. If so, he'd be – finally – meeting the black-haired boy, although he hoped he wasn't as much of a snobby ass as the others made him sound.

Percy made his way back to his bedroom and quickly slid into a pair of black basketball shorts and a blue t-shirt, ruffling his wet hair on his bed, pausing once he saw a small silhouette in the doorway. "Ty? What are you doing up, buddy?" he asked as he walked towards his brother.

Tyson raising his chin to look up at him with his one functioning eye. "Tyson wanna sleep next to Percy," he said with a cute pout, making Percy chuckle and nod.

"Alright, come on, but this is the last time, okay?" he replied, repeating the sentence he said every night and smiling more as Tyson nodded like every night; he just couldn't muster up the strength to say no to him.

The two slid into Percy's bed, Tyson snuggling closer to Percy's chest as Percy switched the table lamp off, sighing heavily in fatigue. Percy stared into the dark until he was certain Tyson wouldn't wake up again. He sighed and got out of the bed, making sure he didn't disturb the smaller one as he carried him carefully in his arms and to his mother's room, placing Tyson in the bed there, where he usually slept. He tucked him into the sheets securely before he kissed his forehead lightly.

"I love you, Ty," he whispered to the boy, who in turn sighed softly. He made his way out of the room, turning off the light and leaving just an inch of the doorway open – the way Tyson preferred it – before finally heading back to his own bed and retiring for the night.


	2. Chapter 2

Second day of school rolled around and Percy found himself taking a seat as he waited for his first class of the day in Goode High School of the Arts to start. He had English Language, and he was hoping the teacher would be moderately sane; so far all the teachers in the school were either weird, or  _really_  weird- even Mr. Chiron, who he'd actually liked. He wondered if it had anything to do with them being surrounded by artistic children who didn't hold much of interest in what they were taught during classes.

The bright side, Percy thought, was that the teacher wasn't that weird when it came to giving a lesson. The not-so-bright side was that she seemed to be extremely passionate about hating the opposite sex. Her name was Ms. Artemis Grauer, and the first thing she'd said was:

"Now before we get started I just want to get one thing clear; I am a proud feminist-" Percy could hardly keep his eyes from rolling at that, he knew what kind of class this was going to be from the first 30 seconds, "and I will not be caving into any of your patriarchal paradigms, so don't think for a second that I will allow any male in here to flaunt his disgusting virile masculinity around during my class. In this class, patriarchy shall disappear to make way for a more sophisticated system.

"Ladies, in this class you shall not suffer as you watch your rights get wrenched right from your hands." She smiled widely, and without her needing to say anything, Percy knew keeping quiet in her classes gave him a better survival chance. The more she talked, the more certain he was of the fact that she was absolutely  _insane_.

Once Percy had established that theory, he watched as one of the guys tried to argue with the teacher, immediately becoming her first and foremost target for what seemed to be the remainder of his life. Percy was fine with feminism, it demanded all the right things, but he could never stand the extremist feminists out there.

He wasn't sure how long the class lasted, but just as he was about to doze off with his eyes open –it was a talent he was silently proud of- the bell rang. Percy flinched in his seat before groaning and heading out into the hall with the others, making sure to avoid eye-contact with the teacher; better safe than killed by a possibly psychotic English teacher, right?

Percy quickly went to his assigned locker, dumping his book there and exchanging it with the duffle bag containing his clothes. He was on his way to the boys' bathroom when he got jostled between the crowd, cursing under his breath as his bag got thrown from his grip and kicked by the hurried feet of the masses. He quickly went on all fours, finding it and gripping its strap before hurrying to his previous destination.

Once in the bathroom, Percy quickly stripped inside one of the cubicles, changing into the black leggings required for his Ballet class. He squeezed into them and was in the process of taking off his shirt when he heard the next class's bell ring, his eyes widening in response.

"Shit, shit, shit," He whispered to himself as he rummaged through his bag, only to find out that he'd lost the loose white shirt he'd brought along with him, the white shirt being a requirement for this class in particular. "Fuck,  _why are you such an idiot_?!" he hissed to himself as he searched desperately for it, not willing to resign to the fact that he must have lost it while his bag had been kicked around.

Percy did however give up after a few seconds. He wasn't going to find the shirt. Sighing, he quickly put the shirt he had been wearing back on. It was blue, with a white drawing of a box-shaped creature wearing red glasses on it, the word  _Genius_  written under the drawing. He was starting to accept the fact that even his shirt seemed to be mocking his intellectual skills at that moment. Percy finally took off running through the corridors.

Three unfortunate factors led up to what happened next; 1) The doors to the Ballet hall were, in fact, made of exaggeratedly transparent glass, 2) Percy was in too much of a hurry and at too high a velocity to realize what lay in front of him was hard, painful glass, and 3) The floor was extremely slippery that day in particular.

Not surprisingly, Percy crashed right into the doors.

They didn't shatter; they were too strong for that. Instead, a loud  _bonk_  was heard by the occupants on the other side of the dance hall as he collided, face first and then proceeded to fall onto his ass, groaning as he heard laughter ensue from inside.

Percy rubbed his forehead, knowing a big, ugly bruise would form there by the end of the school day to mark the apparent sequel to his seemingly never-ending stupidity. The door was opened from the inside, and a pair of feet dressed in ballet shoes were planted in front of him. He looked up to find the one and only Nico di Angelo glaring down at him.

"Funny, you'd expect somebody wearing that shirt to live up to its implications." The pale boy raised one eyebrow at him.

Percy blinked a few times before finally speaking.

"I think I have a concussion."

"No, you don't have a concussion. What I hope you have is a real good excuse for being late to class and  _still_  not being in the right clothes." the boy replied, a hand rested on his hip as he waited for Percy to respond.

"I am concussed," Percy repeated, making Nico di Angelo roll his eyes at him.

"Shut up, get up, and go in there before I give you something much bigger than a concussion to worry about," he growled. Percy was about to repeat his earlier observation when the boy huffed and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, yanking him up and pushing him into the Ballet hall impatiently. Nico di Angelo was surprisingly strong for his outer appearance, Percy hazily noted.

Percy finally seated himself, his vision a little blurry at the edges as he watched the boy pace up and down the hall before he began talking loudly, causing Percy's head to throb a little with each high note.

"Alright, where should I begin?" he asked, more to himself than the occupants of the room, before he smiled widely and stopped pacing, standing right in the middle of the hall. Percy wondered if he'd measured and marked the exact distance earlier to achieve that result.

"I'm Nico di Angelo, as most of you know. I'm an Advanced Ballet major, and I will be your instructor this year. I know, you were all dying to be instructed by Ms. Aphrodite, but unfortunately for you; she's busy, and I have time to spare thanks to my excellence at my major.

"I won't be wasting your time, or mine, in trying to form some pointless artistic statement about this major, I only have one thing to say to you all: Prepare yourselves for a shitload of pain." He smiled tightly at them, his dead chocolate eyes remaining dead and very much like chocolate before he turned around in a way that could only be described as graceful before he picked up a clip-board and began calling each student's name. He proceeded to ask them to stand in front of him for inspection and tell him why they were there. By the time he reached Percy, he had already asked five students to stop wasting his and their time and sign up for some other class.

"Percy Jackson," Nico di Angelo's voice rang in Percy's head and Percy had the sense to get up before the moody instructor called again. He went to stand before the shorter boy, making sure he kept a little bit of distance between them so Nico di Angelo wouldn't have to lift his chin to look at him appropriately; the last thing he wanted to do was offend this guy.

"Ah, our beloved genius," Nico smirked at him, some of the others snickering. Percy blinked at him stupidly as Nico's face faded in and out of focus. Nico inspected Percy, asking him to lift a foot, after which he felt it up to make sure the boy's foot was appropriate for ballet. He finally deemed his foot acceptable, letting it drop to the floor before he looked at Percy once again, "So, Percy. Why are you taking Ballet?" The question took Percy's brain a while to decipher. All he could think of was how cute the boy's nose was. He wondered if he could poke it. He decided to answer instead.

"I don't know, it looked easy to me, you know, 'cause I already take Contemporary and stuff." Apparently that wasn't the answer Nico di Angelo was looking for.

"Hold up- it looked  _easy_  to you?!" the boy ground out between his gritted teeth. Percy nodded; no need to repeat it a third time.

Again, not what Nico di Angelo was waiting to hear. Percy watched as the smaller boy's eyes turned cold, murderous, and his brain was scrambling for what he might have done wrong when the boy pushed past him, starting to pace in front of the others.

"Does  _anybody_  here agree with Percy?" he asked, a wide grin on his face. He reminded Percy of that creepy-pasta guy he'd seen on the internet once, what was his name? Jeff the Killer? Yep, that. "Nobody?" Nico di Angelo continued and Percy returned his attention to him.

" _Good_." he shouted before he whirled around to look at Percy. " _Because ballet is far from easy, Mr. Overly-Confident-Jackson. Ballet is hard. Ballet is hard, it is painful, and what ballet dancers go through to become professionals is not a walk in the park. It is hard, Percy, and trust me I will make sure you in particular know that by the end of this semester_ ," he growled, glaring into Percy's sea-green eyes with such ferocity that Percy considered fleeing the room, the boy had taken his comment pretty personally for some reason- he just didn't think ballet was much harder than Contemporary.

* * *

_'What the fuck is this shit?_ ' was the first thing that came to Percy's mind as Nico di Angelo untied his Ballet shoe-  _Pointe_  shoes, as the boy had called them- and then ordered him to re-tie them onto his foot. At first, all Percy could think about was how painful it was to look at Nico's toes; three of them were bandaged, and the other two looked like they wished they were dead. He wondered if the boy felt self-conscious about them, but then said boy proceeded to kicking his side impatiently and the thought was quickly discarded from Percy's mind.

"Um…" Percy mumbled dumbly and looked up at Nico's face, one of the shoe's ribbons in hand, "So I wrap these around your leg, right?" he asked, getting an elaborate eye-roll from the other boy. He didn't know what Nico was expecting; he had never been near anything related to Ballet before that day.

"Right. So do it," Nico di Angelo smiled fakely at him, his voice a dull tone. Percy tried to do it. He ended up getting kicked again by Nico's now half shoe-wearing foot.

"Okay, that's enough, you're going to cut off my blood supply," Nico said as Percy tightened the knot around the boy's leg. He raised his hands in surrender and backed off, watching as Nico sighed and undid the badly tied laces. "I think we've established that  _nothing_  in ballet is easy," he said as he stood, one foot in a  _Pointe_  shoe, the other bare on the floor. Everybody seemed both scared and disgusted at the foot, but the instructor was hardly fazed by their apparent dislike for its appearance as he walked a bit closer, as if to give them a better look.

"Ballet is difficult, right down to tying your shoes. Hell, even  _choosing_  the right shoes isn't easy, so if any of you smart-asses feels the need to continue on questioning the exact difficulty of Ballet, please, don't be shy, say it." Nico di Angelo said as he rested both hands on his slim waist, waiting for one of them to speak. Nobody breathed.

The rest of the class flowed somewhat smoothly after that, partly because Percy was currently feeling too dizzy to question anything Nico di Angelo said, and partly because everybody else was too scared to do it in his place. They learnt that since none of them had Ballet shoes  _yet_ , today would mostly be introductions to the major, and so Nico di Angelo launched into a speech about Ballet shoes.

"The shoes you're all seeing on my feet are called  _Pointe_ , like we have said before. These shoes mainly help a Ballet dancer to stand on tip-toe, and you guys will not be using these yet since your bodies haven't had the right training for them. The guys, of course, have the choice not to try and use  _Pointe_  shoes at all, but I personally believe it's an excellent exercise, and if you're a true Ballet dancer, you'll be willing to go through all that.'

"Besides  _Pointe_ , there are two other types of shoes; the Soft Ballet Shoes, and Full or Split-Sole Ballet Shoes. Since you're all beginners, I'll be asking you to get Soft Ballet Shoes. They're like socks, basically, but please don't try to make your own out of socks; it won't work. There are many stores you could buy from, I personally purchase mine from  _Capezio_ ; it offers a decent selection of shoes and the employees should be able to help you pick what you need, although I do hope you pick according to durability and not appearance; you'll be using these shoes a lot, and it would suck if they were to collapse before the beginning of the next month."

"Um," a petite girl sitting to the side began as she raised her hand hesitantly; probably afraid of Nico di Angelo directing her wrath on her, now that Percy had gotten back to the back of his mind.

"Yeah?" Nico asked, looking at her expectantly.

"So, do all feet become like… _that_?" she asked, a bit of horror in her tone as she gestured to Nico di Angelo's feet. He looked down at them for a moment, as if studying them for the first time before he looked back up at her, smiling widely.

"Of course." He said and the girl's skin paled considerably. He began pacing, "These are, actually, relatively well taken care of. Some feet end up completely deformed, though that's mostly the shoes' fault, and that's why I encourage you to pick your shoes wisely. Your feet will go through a lot of pressure, especially if you plan to go pro, and if your shoes don't fit you properly, or they divide pressure in all the wrong ways, your feet won't survive Ballet." He shrugged, "In short, just don't screw up and maybe you'll get to keep your feet."

With those words, Nico moved onto other ballet-related subjects that Percy didn't really care about as his vision blurred, his thoughts scattering in his brain the way leaves scatter in the fall as Nico di Angelo spoke. He vaguely heard Nico di Angelo address him and he stood up, his vision dimming further as he attempted to take a step. The last thing Percy heard was a whispered  _Whoa, dude_ , as he felt himself descend, and then all went black.

* * *

Percy squinted as his eyes fluttered open slowly, his pupils shrinking as they absorbed the alarmingly bright light in the room he was in. He groaned as his head started pounding rhythmically, the pounding very much similar to an actual drumbeat, except said drumbeat seemed to originate from the core of his brain. He shut his eyes again, waiting for the pounding to turn into a dull throb before his ears made way to other sounds, allowing him to hear the two people speaking near him.

"He stood you up-  _again_. I don't get why you're staying with this jerk, Nico," he heard an unfamiliar female voice say, a sigh following it from the addressed Nico di Angelo before he spoke.

"Look, I'm sure he was busy with something; I'll talk to him today and see what happened exactly." the boy answered her, his tone trying to maintain indifference. Percy figured they were talking about the boy's boyfriend who he'd seen in the lunch room the previous day.

"But aren't you angry?! This is like, the third time he's stood you up, Nico. And can you remind me why he stood you up the last time?" the girl asked, a long pause ensuing before Nico muttered in defeat;

"He went to a party with his friends…" the boy admitted.

"And did he call you to tell you to not wait for him?" The girl urged Nico to admit it, knowing the boy was too nice to his boyfriend to admit said boyfriend's bullshit. A long silence followed as Nico di Angelo remained quiet before she probed again, "Nico?"

"No, okay? He ditched me for a party and kept me waiting at a cafe for three hours and didn't even call but- but you know what, Rachel? I actually like Luke, and he likes me back-" The Rachel person snorted, making the boy's voice acquire an even more irritated tone as he continued, "And I'm  _not_  going to act like some thirteen year old jealous kid who can't accept that-that-" Nico paused as he searched for what he wanted to say.

"That what, Nico?" Rachel asked, amusement in her tone as she waited for her friend to come up with his grand finish, earning a glare from the boy as he finished between gritted teeth.

"That his boyfriend has a life beside him. I respect Luke's need to be away from me sometimes, okay? So you should try to accept that because I'm not leaving him." he said firmly, causing Percy to finally open his eyes and look at the two of them, grunting as he sat up slowly.

"I dunno, Nico, this Luke guy kinda sounds like a douchebag to me," he commented, earning a smirk from the redhead named Rachel. Her fiery hair was frizzy and kept in a messy bun, the few freckles dusted along her cheeks a few shades lighter. She had intelligent green eyes that shimmered in amusement as the two of them exchanged a look of agreement. She had a little paint on her chin, but Percy opted not to tell her.

"Hi, I'm Rachel Elizabeth Dare, also known as this guy's best and only friend."

"You're not my best friend," Nico said, but was promptly ignored by the other two.

"Percy Jackson, no titles."

"Hi Percy Jackson," the girl greeted again, "Can you convince my dear friend Nico that he's wrong about his boyfriend?"

"Shut up, he doesn't know what he's talking about," Nico groaned at the red-haired girl, causing Percy to smirk.

"Actually, Rachel, I can. Nico, I know Luke's kind; there were a shit-ton of them in my older school. They're attractive, and they know they're attractive, so they're douchey, ungrateful, and wind up hurting anybody that tries to be with them."

"Yeah, here's the thing, Percy, Luke actually likes me, and with all due respect, I'm pretty sure a Castellan isn't like the guys you know from some public school, so why don't you stop trying to get onto a level that's obviously much higher than-"

"Nico!" Rachel growled at him and he stopped, looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

"What? I'm just saying, a scholarship kid can't possibly know anything about-"

"About the cool, rich kids with parents that shit dollar bills right out of their asses, right?" Percy finished for him, stunning Nico silent as he shook his head. He immediately regretted it as he felt his brain do a somersault in his skull, though he kept quiet about the surge of nausea that enveloped him as he slid off the infirmary's bed, gripping the bed's side tightly as he glared at Nico, "You know, you'd expect you rich kids to have a little more class than us public school trash, but I'm always proven wrong. You're all just empty assholes." He rolled his eyes and continued to grab his bag once he'd located it, slinging it over his shoulder and shaking his head as he made his way out.

"Wait, dude, he didn't mean to- he wasn't-" Rachel tried to block his path but sighed as he moved around her swiftly, smiling at her bitterly.

"No, he completely meant it, and I'm sure he's right, I couldn't possibly understand the chivalry of Luke Castellan. I'm oh sorry for offending you with my vulgar comments, Your Majesty." He ironically bowed to Nico, who clenched his jaw but said nothing as Percy turned to look at Rachel, "It was nice meeting you, Rachel. I've got to catch the rest of my classes now; some of us here actually have to work to stay in this school." He glanced at Nico, whose eyes were now looking at the floor, before he left the nurse's office. He sighed as he walked a few steps away from the office before leaning on the wall of the corridor. He was vaguely aware that he probably shouldn't be walking around with a mild concussion, but he couldn't give a shit right then. Somebody's footsteps started in his direction and he brought his attention to them.

"Hey," Calypso said as she stood before him, "Mind if I ask what's got your gluteus maximus parted and made its way up your anus this fine evening?" Percy smirked despite himself and shrugged.

"Is Nico di Angelo a good enough answer?" He asked, Calypso smirking back at him.

"As good as any," she said, "What've you got next?"

"What time is it?" he asked.

"12:30."

"I've got a free period," he answered.

"Good, I've got Drama but I don't need to get into class till 1. We'll get your ass to loosen up by then," she said and started walking. Percy followed with no complaints; he was starting to understand that Calypso was the kind of girl that didn't give a shit about complaints.

They headed out through the backdoor near the Arts Workshop and made their way through the backyard, circling around the theater to the smoking spot she'd mentioned to him earlier.

"I don't smoke," he quickly said to her back,

"I do. Sit down, I won't peer pressure you or something." she said as she sat down on one of the steps that led up to the peripheral door of the theater. He took a seat on a step below her.

"So what did di Angelo do?" she asked as she released a cloud of smoke, Percy's eyes following it as he considered how to answer.

"He was just being a prick." he said.

"That's it?" she asked and he frowned at her in confusion, making her roll her eyes and explain after a few breaths from her cigarette. "It's just that Nico di Angelo is always a prick, I'm pretty sure the guy was born that way." She shrugged.

"No, not like that, not his normal prickiness. Basically, we were all talking and he made this comment on how I'm only here because of a scholarship." Percy shrugged. "It wasn't really cool of him, especially since he actually seemed like a decent person before. Didn't expect him to be this shallow about things."

"He's not," Calypso answered then flicked the cigarette away, watching the reddened ashes on it turn to a cold, dead grey before facing Percy. "What you need to understand about Nico di Angelo, Percy, is that he's not considerate. It doesn't mean he's a jerk; he just doesn't really try to sympathize with anybody. I actually like the guy." She shrugged. "We're not friends or anything, but I respect him."

"Seriously? Why? From what I've heard, everybody either hates him or is really scared of him."

"That's 'cause they're idiots. They think any person that doesn't try to be nice is automatically a bitch." She lit up another cigarette and took a deep breath of it before puckering her lips and blowing the smoke up into the air.

"You don't agree?" Percy asked.

"No," she answered, "I just think they're not a nice person, which is cool with me; I'm not a nice person."

"You're fairly nice." Percy said.

"And I'm also fairly un-nice," she said back at him. He sighed.

"I'm not that angry at him, I just thought…" He searched for the words.

"You were hoping he'd be nicer than he seemed?" she asked and he nodded. She had the hint of an amused smile before she tapped her cigarette, dead ashes free-falling to the floor. "Look, Percy. I've only exchanged like, two sentences with di Angelo since we were both accepted into this school, but judging from those two sentences, I can tell you that he isn't a bad person, but I can also tell you that he can't get much better than that."

"Why?" Percy asked.

"Because Nico di Angelo is from the richest kids around here, and these kids don't have much more to them than what you see," Calypso answered. She flicked her cigarette away as a girl with long black hair that matched her dark eyes opened the door to the theater, informing Calypso that she was required inside. Calypso smiled and put a hand on Percy's shoulder before she got off her respective step and walked past the girl and into the theater.

"You okay there?" the dark-haired girl asked him, still halfway through the door as she perceived him.

"Yeah," he said, "I'm fine."

She shrugged and followed Calypso back inside, the door swinging shut heavily behind the two. Percy sighed and stared at the cigarette butts left by Calypso on the ground, one of them still a faltering orange at one end. He stood, considering what Calypso had said, then stepped onto the left-over cigarette and put it out. He sighed and grabbed his bag, making his way back to the school. As he approached the door, he decided that Calypso was wrong; because Nico di Angelo did have more to him, he had to have more. He didn't know how he knew; it could be the gleam he saw in the boy's eyes as he instructed Ballet earlier in class, or it could be the pure grace that seemed to follow Nico di Angelo at all times. It could be so many things, but he knew that there was more to Nico di Angelo, maybe it wasn't something good, but it wasn't necessarily bad either.

* * *

The slow, yet not-so-torturous flow of the Goode High School of Art's classes moved uneventfully for the rest of the day, which Percy was grateful for as he didn't think he had the energy to do anything other than stare in agony at the clocks hung strategically in the center of each classroom's wall, surely positioned there to torture students as they watched every second pass into the next. He was pretty sure he'd die of old age before his final class -Mathematics with the ever so wonderful Professor Daedalus Quintus - ended, but as it turned out; it did end, and he was standing before his locker to pack all his things into his bag and go home when Grover Underwood materialized beside him.

"Hey," Percy said once he saw him.

"Hey," Grover said, "Me and Octavian are going to go grab something to eat and maybe go watch something after, you wanna come?" he asked. Percy knew this was the step needed to form a strong friendship with the two, but at the moment his head was killing him, and all he wanted was to get home, take a nap, and leave the rest up to the laziness gods that existed –if they existed- because he definitely wasn't moving from his bed today.

"Uh," He began as he pushed his duffle bag into his normal school bag before he looked up at Grover, "Not really, I've got this killer headache."

"I heard you got a concussion."

"I crashed into the Ballet Hall's doors," Percy explained. Grover nodded.

"Yeah, heard that too. It ain't your fault man, they clean the doors around here too much. I've crashed into exactly 3 transparent doors since coming to this school."

"Did you ever get a concussion?"

"No, not all of us are as talented as you are at crashing into doors."

"Shut up." Percy rolled his eyes, a smirk appearing on his lips as Grover laughed. He stopped as a voice called to him, turning to look at a girl standing a few lockers away with a sweet smile on her face.

"That's Juniper. Talk to you later, man." He slapped Percy's back before he walked towards the girl, embracing her tightly. Percy watched them with a smile on his face. The girl was pretty; her hair was a wavy almond that went greatly with her green eyes, and she was considerably shorter than Grover, causing her to get on her tip-toes in order to kiss him. Her tip-toeing reminded Percy of the  _Pointe_  shoes, which reminded him of Nico di Angelo, and that reminded him that the boy had seen him and hadn't apologized to him during lunch that day. He had been fully expecting that after the talk he'd had with Calypso; Nico di Angelo seemed to be the stubborn type as well as the blunt type.

Percy was just about to walk down the stairs that lead to the front gate of the school when he heard his own name being called. He turned around to look, a little confused when he saw none other than Rachel, the redhead from earlier, walking up to him with a bag slung around her shoulder.

"Hey," he said as she drew closer.

"Hey, sorry, I just… I wanted to apologize for Nico's behavior earlier. It was rude and uncalled for, I know, but please don't take it personally, sometimes he says things he doesn't really mean to say."

"He doesn't seem like the kind of person who'd say something he doesn't mean to say," Percy countered with a raised an eyebrow. "Besides, why doesn't he apologize for himself?"

"Because he never will; his pride is about the size of a galaxy. He doesn't even know that I'm apologizing for him, if he did he'd probably kill me." She sighed, "Look, all I know is that he felt bad about it, and that's as good as an apology when it comes to Nico di Angelo."

"You do a lot of defending for him, huh?" Percy remarked, catching her off-guards with his comment before she chuckled.

"It's my duty as a friend. He's a good person who's always mistaken for a bad one, and he doesn't make any effort to correct that."

"But don't you think that says enough about him already?" he asked, watching her while she silently watched him, her green eyes calculating but not giving away any of her thoughts. A few beats of silence passed before Percy sighed, breaking the rhythm.

"Anyway, I'm not upset anymore. I was definitely upset before, but I've done a little thinking about it and managed to cool down. Don't worry, we're good, and I don't think he's a bad person." He smiled softly at her, watching as she smirked back at him. "I gotta run now if I wanna take the subway home, so…" He trailed off, pointing a thumb behind him and towards the gate.

"Sure." she said and smiled, watching as he turned around and began to walk away. "Hey, Percy?"

He turned back to look at her expectantly. "You're cool. I'll see you around." she raised a hand to bid goodbye before turning back and heading to the parking lot, her red curls bouncing behind her as Percy watched her go. There were definitely some interesting people in this school.

Sighing, Percy exited the school and soon reached the subway station. He glanced down at his phone once he'd gotten on the train to find a message from his mother telling him that she and Tyson were out to his counselor's and would be coming home late as she had promised Tyson ice-cream afterwards. She continued to say that he'd find the keys under the doormat.

Sitting a little uncomfortable in the crowded train, he opened up a game and played idly as he waited for it to reach his destination. Once he got off, he walked the rest of the way to his apartment's building, his hands in his pocket as he watched the people of Harlem go about their daily functions. He reached his building a short while after, making his way up the long stream of stairs to their apartment, the bag on his back becoming heavier with each step before he finally stood before their door. He looked under the doormat, where the key to their small home lay. He took it and unlocked the door, walking into the dark apartment.

Percy went straight to his room and dumped his bag there, then proceeded to undress. He sat down as he kicked his shoes off his feet, sighing in relief as fresh air rushed to his deprived toes. Once he felt they had had their fair share of breathing, he stood and quickly took off the rest of his clothes and went to his closet, pulling out a random a pair of comfortable basketball shorts and a white shirt to put on.

Now comfortably dressed, he made his way to the kitchen to find a Sticky Note on the fridge's surface. He plucked it off and read what was written.

_There are turkey slices in the fridge, make yourself a sandwich. -Love, Mom._

Percy opened the fridge and looked inside, spotting the aforementioned turkey slices. Considering the option of actually making an effort and constructing a sandwich on his own, he finally decided it would require too much energy. He grabbed the milk carton and shut the fridge's door with his foot, grabbing the cereal standing on top of the fridge with his other hand, and placing both on the counter. He proceeded to get a bowl and put as much cereal as physically possible in it before pouring the milk next. Smiling happily at his less-than-5-seconds-of-making masterpiece, he pulled out a spoon and made his way to the couch with the bowl, plopping down and turning on the TV. He flipped through the channels and eventually settled on a low-budget action movie as it happened to be the best thing on. He watched as he ate silently, rolling his eyes as the cliché white, muscular protagonist with humanly impossible shooting accuracy jumped from some high-ass floor with two fatal wounds and still managed to survive.

Once the movie was over, Percy gathered up the motivation to get up and deposit his empty bowl in the sink, walking back past the living room and into his room. He plopped down onto the bed and closed his eyes, groaning as instant relief rushed to his brain at the reduction of light registering in it.

* * *

Percy woke up later that afternoon, his eyes fluttering open slowly to the face of Tyson staring at him with his good eye from across the room, a few of his Playstation 3 CD's thrown randomly on the ground, two of them held in Tyson's hands. Upon further inspection, though, Percy realized that they weren't two and in fact were one CD broken almost exactly in half. His eyes widened and he jumped up, flinging the sheets to the side,

"Oh my god, Tyson!" he shouted, his eyes widening more as he recognized the CD as Battlefield 4; one of his favorite video games.

"C and C!" Tyson exclaimed proudly, showing him the two C's. Percy opened his mouth to shout at him before he paused, groaning as he saw the innocently proud look on Tyson's face.

"Yeah, C and C buddy." he groaned in defeat, dropping his head between his legs, his hands buried in his hair in frustration He looked up as Sally appeared in the doorway, "They're two C's Mom." he sighed as his Mom's eyes widened. She'd agreed to buy him those on the condition that he wouldn't be receiving Christmas presents that year, but even then it had been tough finding enough money for them.

"Did he break all of them?" she asked, frowning as she walked into the room to inspect the mess.

"No, it's just that one."

"Was it really important?" she turned to him, biting on her fingernail; a sign that she felt guilty. Percy quickly shook his head. It was a favorite, but he didn't want her to feel bad for what Tyson had done.

"Good. With Tyson's therapy I don't think we can afford to get you another one." she leaned down to kiss his head, attempting to fix a few wild strands. "I'm sorry sweetie."

"It's fine, really." he smiled weakly at her, pulling away in annoyance as she kept fixing his hair. She chuckled.

"Alright, well, it's time for dinner."

"What's for dinner?" he asked as he stood up, stretching lazily.

"Fish."

"I don't like fish." he whined, scrunching up his nose in distaste.

"Well, fish is good for you. You're a dancer; you should know about all that healthy stuff." she said.

"That," he said, "is a stereotype. Also, since you mentioned my dancing I need to buy ballet shoes."

"You remember now? Percy, I was out the whole day; you could have told me to buy you a pair!" Sally groaned and Percy flashed her the best apologetic smile he could produce.

"Fine, I'll take you tomorrow after school. Now come have dinner." She shook her head and beckoned to him. He sighed and nodded in defeat, walking to Tyson and kneeling.

"Hey, buddy, how about you leave the CD and come have dinner?" he asked.

"No!" Tyson shouted back in his face stubbornly, hugging the broken pieces to his chest protectively, "Tyson's."

"I know, yours. I promise nobody will touch Tyson's CD, so put it down and let's go." Percy spoke in a soothing tone, his eyes begging Tyson to give it up. He didn't of course.

"NO!" Tyson shouted louder, starting to screech as Percy tried to snatch them away from him. Percy eventually gave up and allowed him to take the broken CD with him to the table.

"I couldn't convince him," he explained to his mother, who chuckled and shrugged.

"It's fine, he's a little moody because of his session today." She brushed a few hairs away from Tyson's forehead, kissing it gently. Once done with that, she began cutting up the fish and giving each one of them his share of the fish.

"How did that go, anyway? Any better?" Percy asked, his lips thinning in distaste as he looked down at the fish on his plate.

Sally sighed. "I mean, he said his speaking skills are a little better, which is good, but he isn't progressing as much as we hoped. He needs to get better if I want to put him in school." she said. Her tone was sad, it was always sad when she spoke of Tyson's problems. Percy knew she blamed herself, although he also knew it wasn't her fault. Tyson had been born with only one functioning eye, and they hadn't suspected autism until he was almost 4. He knew his mother wanted to make Tyson's life easier for him, to make him feel like a normal kid, but it wasn't possible, and he was sure she knew that too.

"If you want I'll start helping him learn a little more after I get back from school every day." he suggested, shrugging.

"I don't want you to burden yourself sweetie; you always get back exhausted from dancing. I'll try to see if I can get him another private tutor…" she said, watching Tyson as he muttered the word  _tutor_  over and over to himself, the food in his plate untouched.

"Mrs. Dawson quit?" Percy asked, frowning. He'd seen her the other day.

"She's feeling pretty ill, and you know how Tyson is, she can't keep up with him at her age," Sally said. "I'll call his doctor tomorrow morning and see if he could direct us to a few low-cost tutors."

"You know there aren't many low-cost tutors in New York."

" _I know_ ," Sally groaned, rubbing her eyes tiredly. "We'll see how it turns out. But I'm not leaving him without education."

"I know, Mom. Look, you look for some tutor for him, and until we get one I'll try to tutor him a little," Percy said.

"Tutor!" Tyson shouted, causing Percy to laugh as Sally shook her head and smiled.

"Eat your food, baby," she urged him. He ignored her, repeating her sentences like he sometimes did before she finally gave up, taking the plate from the table and taking it back to the kitchen.

Percy took his empty plate to the kitchen and assured Sally that he'd do the dishes for her, telling her to go sit back a little, although he knew she'd just busy herself with Tyson's situation instead. He hummed a little as he cleaned the dishes, watching as he covered them with foamy soap before his hand opened the faucet and washed all of it away, repeating the process with each dish and cup.

Once the sink was empty he wiped a little of the water sprayed on the counter away with a towel, wiping his hands on it afterwards before hanging it on the wall and exiting the small kitchen. He sat down beside his mother, Tyson sitting on the floor at his feet. He smiled gently as Sally rested her head on his shoulder.

"So how was school today?" she asked.

"It was okay. I got a mild concussion and embarrassed myself in front of my classmates." He said.

"So, the usual?" She asked, making him laugh.

"Mom I'm not as lame as you think I am." He rolled his eyes.

"No, but you're still lame," she said.

"Thanks."

"I still love you." She grinned.

"Because that's what every 16 year old wants to brag about; his Mom's love." He smirked.

"Well no, but not every 16 year old has me for a Mom."

"That's true. I have the baddest Mom in New York."

"It's worst, darling."

"Mom," he said, "Be cool." She laughed.

"Alright, fine, I'll be cool." she smiled.

"And I know it's worst, I'm not stupid," he grumbled.

"I know you're not." She kissed his cheek. He smiled. They went quiet as they turned back to the TV to watch  _CSI_ , followed by two other crime shows Percy didn't really like all that much, but he stayed because he always did stay for Sally, even if it was just a crime show she wanted him to watch with her.

Percy's thoughts traveled to his dad, Poseidon, whom he hardly remembered due to the fact that he'd left shortly after Tyson was born, when Percy was barely 7 years old. He only really remembered his smile and his sea-colored eyes, which were so kind that he had had trouble believing Triton when he told him all the horrible things the man had done to both his older brother and his mother. According to Triton, his father had been quite the moody man. He was calm and pleasant one second, and then angry the next, but even so Triton never let him touch a single hair on Percy's head. He tried to defend their mother at times, but never succeeded.

The man abused them, both emotionally and physically, although Percy never really was at the receiving end of the abuse. Percy learnt that the scar on Triton's torso was from a time when his father had pushed him a bit too roughly, causing him to fall and land on a sharp object and injure himself. And if that wasn't horrible enough, he hadn't even cared, telling Triton to stop crying and get him a beer as if the boy wasn't bleeding through his shirt.

Poseidon had only gotten worse as time passed, cheating on his mother and beating her and Triton whenever he saw the chance. The night he'd left, Percy remembered hearing them fight, although he was supposed to play asleep and so remained in his bed. He recalled hearing a loud thud and Tyson's wailing before his mother started shouting even louder, before the door was slammed behind his father just as quickly as it was opened. Percy later found out that his father had apparently dropped Tyson and opened a gash in the little boy's head, which was still somewhat visible whenever his hair was cut short.

Percy looked towards Tyson, observing as the boy laid down on the carpet, watching as the light reflected off the CD's broken pieces. Percy wondered if his brother's problems were because of his father's abuse. He wondered if Tyson would have been normal if he hadn't been dropped as an infant, although he highly doubted that had anything to do with Autism. He did know, however, that Tyson would have been much easier to handle if there was a father around, but it was probably for the better that their father had left that day; god only knows how badly he would have traumatized his disabled child.

"Percy?" Sally asked, her voice breaking through the noise in his head. He looked at her.

"Yeah?"

"I said I'm going to take Tyson to bed and go to sleep. Do you need anything?" she asked and he shook his head no. He watched her as she got off, groaning as her back bones popped with the action. She then bent down and kissed Tyson's head, informing him that it was bedtime.

"Mom?" he asked as she got Tyson to stand up.

"Mm?" she hummed back in question, looking at him.

"Do you regret having us?" he asked, his sea-green eyes watching her face intently. She smiled gently.

"No, Percy. My life would be nothing if it weren't for you three boys," she said.

"But don't you ever wish you hadn't gotten into all of this?" he pressed on.

"Sometimes. But then Triton is calling me and I'm remembering what a handsome, smart, young man he is, and then you're coming home and I remember how talented and caring you are and then this little guy," She rubbed Tyson's shoulder gently, "is repeating something I had told him a few days before that I thought he hadn't even heard and I remember what a sweet, gentle person he is and I feel a little honored to have gotten to be your Mom." She finished, her eyes a little glossy with tears as a soft, loving smile flourished on her lips.

"I love you, Mom," Percy said and she smiled a little wider, leaning down to kiss his forehead gently.

"I love you too, Percy," she said. Tyson quickly hurried on top of Percy, crushing his crotch a little as his foot pressed down on it. He kissed Percy's forehead.

"Love you too, Percy," he repeated, his words a little heavy in his mouth, and Percy would have been a damn liar if he said his eyes didn't feel a little wet as he watched his mother retreat to her bedroom with his little brother, who had a little energized skip in his walk that let Percy know he'd be keeping his mother up for a while.

Percy eventually got off the couch and retreated to his own bedroom once he was done with locking the apartment's door and shutting the lights. He went to the chair before his desk and sat in it, pulling out his assigned homework and attempting to do it. He considered the equation Professor Daedalus had assigned them for a few minutes before he sighed and closed his notebook, placing it back in his backpack. There was no understanding Mathematics for Percy Jackson.

He swiveled the chair in slow circles as he sat in it, letting his head fall back to watch the glow-in-the-dark fish on his ceiling that no longer glowed in the dark. He huffed. These were the worst nights; when he was wide awake and there was absolutely nothing to do.

Percy remembered the computer sitting on his desk and decided to check his Facebook since there was nothing else to do, and he hadn't opened it in a while anyway. He pressed the power button, waiting for the screen to start. Once it did he opened the browser, quickly typing in his username and password in the assigned gaps and gaining access to his account. The first thing he noticed was the fact that he actually had  _Friend Requests_ , and a lot of them. He frowned and opened the menu, scrolling down the list of pending friendships, realizing that all of them were from Goode, and most of them had never spoken to him once in the past two days.

That was the thing that puzzled Percy the most about social networking sites, how people who didn't even know you sent you requests of friendship, expecting the two of you to be the best of friends on the internet when you didn't even exchange greetings in the hallway. It was as if the site was a sort of escape to some fairyland that existed on the intertwined webs of the internet, where your school-bully liked your  _statuses_  and  _poked_  you but still managed to shove you into the locker the very next day.

With that in mind, Percy ignored most of the requests, accepting the few that he did recognize from Grover, Annabeth, Octavian and another guy he'd sat next to in Biology class named Ethan. He was about to leave the rest of the requests for another time when another one arrived, puzzling him. It was from Rachel Elizabeth Dare. He hadn't expected her to even have a Facebook; she'd seemed like the kind of person that simply wouldn't be interested in something as silly as Facebook. Shrugging, he accepted her request as well, clicking on her profile to check it out. As he'd predicted, she wasn't exactly invested in her Facebook account, with her latest post being from a month earlier about some event.

Percy caught himself yawning as he was stalking the girl's tagged pictures, finding that Nico di Angelo was in a lot of them but didn't seem to have an account himself. Percy looked down at his computer's clock, which read 2 AM. Realizing he only had a few hours to sleep before school next morning, he logged out and shut down his computer.

Getting into his bed, Percy curled into its warmth, inwardly hoping that the next day wouldn't be as disastrous as this one before falling asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2 is here! This is a bit shorter than the first, sorry. I don't really focus a lot on word count, when I feel a chapter is suitable I just put it, so yeah.
> 
> Anyway, a few things to clear up! 1) I am the hugest feminist ever, so the beginning wasn't meant to offend, but -let's be real- Percy isn't exactly the most well-rounded person with topics like this, and Artemis is a bit extreme, at least in this fic. 2) Nico di Angelo's full name being repeated is on purpose, it'll be revealed later why, so for now try not to be too annoyed by this.  
> Thank you so much for all the kudos and comments, I appreciate them so much!

**Author's Note:**

> Tada! My first dance AU. I'd just like to mention that several things inspired this: John Green's Looking for Alaska, a few fics I've read but honestly can't find anymore, watching dance performances late at night, and HIMYM. With that said, hope you liked it!


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